A plasma display panel (hereinafter called PDP) displays a picture with a gas discharge causing ultraviolet rays and exciting a phosphor with the ultraviolet rays.
The PDP can be roughly classified into an AC type and a DC type for its driving method, and a surface discharge type and an opposing discharge type for its discharging scheme. At present, a surface discharge type with three electrodes makes a mainstream of the PDP because of its convenience for producing high-precision and a large screen, and because of its simplicity in manufacturing. This type comprises: a front panel and a back panel oppositely faced, with the front panel having a plurality of display electrodes composed of a scanning electrode and a sustain electrode, and the back panel having a plurality of data electrodes intersecting the display electrodes at right angles; a discharge cell formed at an intersection of a display electrode and a data electrode; and a phosphor layer deposited in the discharge cell. With this construction, the phosphor layer can be made relatively thicker fitting to a color display which employs a phosphor. This condition is disclosed in a non-patent related document, ‘All about plasma display’ (May 1, 1997), coauthored by Hiraki Uchiike and Shigeo Mikoshiba, Industrial Research Committee, p.p. 79, 80).
A plasma display device using the above mentioned PDP features a high displaying speed, a wide viewing angle, easy production in a large size and a higher display quality by its self-luminescence, as compared to a liquid crystal panel. Because of its features, the device is particularly receiving attention among flat panel devices and is used for a variety of applications such as a display device for a public place and a display device for a family enjoying a picture on a large screen.
Meanwhile, a request for a high precision PDP of this type is growing. In order to meet the request, an arrayed pitch of discharge cells must be narrow. When the pitch is narrowed, a problem occurs in that resulting is a false discharge between adjacent discharge cells, thereby adversely affecting picture display. To display a quality picture with no defect such as of no-lighting, it is necessary to securely generate an address discharge between the scanning electrode and the data electrode when the address discharge is made for displaying a picture.
The present invention is made to overcome above problems and aims to provide a PDP, by preventing a false discharge between adjacent discharge cells even for a high-precision PDP and securely generating an address discharge between a scanning electrode and a data electrode.